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View Full Version : Democrats Don't Want US Servicemen to Vote!



MagicMtnDan
10-28-2004, 09:06 AM
Pennsylvania expects their voters overseas to get their ballots in (by snail mail!) BEFORE the election (why are their requirements more difficult than voters living here in the US?!). As a reference, Florida gives overseas voters up to 20 days AFTER the election to get their votes in! Here's the story:
HARRISBURG -- Although the state Supreme Court has affirmed, for now, that Ralph Nader won't be on Pennsylvania's November ballot, still uncertain is whether the U.S. Department of Justice can force the state to send corrected absentee ballots to overseas voters, then extend the period during which those ballots can be tabulated.
Democrats, including Gov. Ed Rendell and his underlings, say new ballots shouldn't be sent. Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and the legal squad from the Justice Department, say they should.
Some of the state's absentee and write-in ballots that were sent overseas to soldiers and civilians bore Nader's name and others did not, thanks to lawsuits and subsequent appeals filed by Nader's attorneys.
That confusion, the Justice Department argues, would be eased if the state were ordered by federal court to send out new, updated ballots without Nader's name on them.
Politically, such an emergency order would benefit the re-election campaign of President Bush, because military votes tend to be Republican votes. Giving Pennsylvania extra time to count overseas ballots -- the Justice Department is suggesting a Nov. 17 deadline, instead of the usual Oct. 29 deadline -- could theoretically add to Bush's total in a hotly contested state.
Santorum criticized Rendell yesterday for refusing to accede to the Justice Department request, saying U.S. servicemen and women are risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect Americans' right to vote. The Democratic Rendell administration is refusing to allow the additional time so that absentee ballots from overseas can be received and counted in the upcoming presidential election.
"I respect the governor, but I am confounded by his actions in this case," Santorum said.
Rendell is "under tremendous pressure from the Democratic National Committee and the Kerry campaign not to extend this deadline" for receiving ballots, Santorum added.
But attorneys and witnesses for the state, during testimony given yesterday in U.S. District Court, said the individual county elections offices had fulfilled all of their duties in sending out absentee ballots to anyone who requested them. Sending out another round of ballots would not only be confusing for overseas voters, but would be overwhelming for the county election employees, who are already working overtime in anticipation of Election Day.
Mark Wolosik, Allegheny County's election director, testified that the county's election workers have too much to do as it is.
"There is no time in our county to reprint ballots," he said.
An attorney for Pennsylvania's State Department, Linda Barrett, suggested that the Justice Department might be barking up the wrong tree. Even if the court grants an "emergency order," she said, there's no provision in state law that allows the state to force county election bureaus to send out new absentee ballots.
That's because each county handles its own elections, and decides on its own when to send out overseas ballots.
U.S. attorneys suggested the county elections offices use fax machines to send out new ballots, although they then would have to be filled out and sent back via regular mail.
This isn't the U.S. Justice Department's first foray into the narrow race between Bush and his Democratic challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry. In Michigan, Bush's Justice Department had argued that the state's election officials should be free to adopt strict rules to count "provisional" ballots, or the ballots for people whose eligibility to vote isn't immediately verifiable.
A federal judge rejected those arguments, and allowed state Democrats to sue in an effort to ease restrictions on voters whose names are missing from Election Day voter rolls.
Yesterday's hearing in Harrisburg wasn't completed by the end of the work day, and Judge Yvette Kane said the court would reconvene this morning.
source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04294/398764.stm

spectratoad
10-28-2004, 10:18 AM
We need, I thought we had, a standardized voting system. These elections have been totally out of control. Florida should not be allowed to cast ballots if they can't get their $hit together. I am beginning to believe that the states or someone in charge in the states should be held criminally liable for election/vote F'ups. :mad: :mad:

napabob
10-28-2004, 10:21 AM
Ohio GOP challenges 35,000 voters
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:11 p.m. ET Oct. 28, 2004
COLUMBUS, Ohio - One voter picks up letters at the post office because trucks kept hitting his mailbox. Another serves in Iraq. Hundreds more are homeless, listing shelters as permanent addresses.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6353567/

Havasu Cig
10-28-2004, 03:36 PM
We need a federal I.D card that must be presented at the time of voting. Absentee balots should only be accepted for person in the military serving overseas. There will always be voter fraud to some extent but this would take care of a good deal of it.